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Timeball Station Review

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• Quail Island

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Timeball Station

Fodor's Review:

There's a small maritime museum on Gladstone Quay, but the main local sight is the castlelike Timeball Station. In the days before GPS and atomic clocks, ships would make sure their chronometers were accurate by checking them when the large ball at the Timeball Station was lowered. (Clocks were used to calculate longitude while ships were at sea, and an inaccurate timepiece could result in disaster.) Though it's no longer needed, the Historic Places Trust maintains the station and keeps the ball dropping. The ball is raised above the tower five minutes before 1 PM and then dropped exactly on the hour.

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